Communications networks are widely used for nationwide and worldwide communication of voice, multimedia and/or data. As used herein, communications networks include public communications networks, such as the Public-Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), terrestrial and/or satellite cellular networks, and/or the Internet.
In communications networks, a signal may be broadcast throughout the entire network and/or a portion thereof, and devices connected to the network that are authorized to receive the broadcast may have a decoder capability to decode the signal, thereby allowing end users to access the communication. For example, premium content cable television channels such as Home Box Office (HBO) may be encoded/scrambled and transmitted over a cable network. A premium content subscriber may have a device, usually at the subscriber premises, that may be configured to decode/descramble the premium content channel for viewing by the subscriber. However, cable TV subscribers who do not subscribe to the premium content channels may not have such a device, and may therefore be unable to decode and/or view the premium content channels.
Paging is another type of communications service where subscribers may receive one-way communications over a network at the exclusion of other users of the network. A pager is a small radio receiver which may constantly monitor a specific radio frequency that is dedicated to pager use. Each pager may monitor for a specific identification string, also called a capcode, which may alert the pager that an incoming message is addressed to the pager. As such, a specific pager may activate only when it “hears” its capcode over the air. A group of pagers that subscribe to a service may monitor for a common capcode, thereby allowing all pagers that subscribe to that service to receive a common message related to the service. For example, pager users who subscribe to a sports news services may monitor for a common capcode specified by the sports news services, and as such, all subscribing users may receive sports content that is transmitted with the capcode. However, pager users who do not subscribe to the sports service may not receive the sports content, as such pagers may not be configured to monitor for the specified capcode.
The broadcast methods employed in the communications services described above may be suitable where dedicated radio channels are provided and/or where bandwidth is sufficient. However, such methods may be costly in networks designed for point-to-point communications, such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and/or Wi-MAX networks. In cellular networks, for example, a cellular carrier can create a short message system (SMS) broadcast message that may be broadcast to all subscribers who are served by designated cell towers. However, the system may not be designed to permit a specifically designated group within the SMS subscribers to receive SMS messages at the exclusion of others.